Antibiotics have saved countless lives since their discovery in the 20th century. One of the protagonists was Selman Waksman. With his team, he discovered and developed many types of antibiotics, including streptomycin, which could be used against tuberculosis. Still, his reputation is not completely infallible.
Antibiotics have saved countless lives since their discovery in the 20th century. One of the protagonists was Selman Waksman. With his team, he discovered and developed many types of antibiotics, including streptomycin, which could be used against tuberculosis. Still, his reputation is not completely infallible.
Streptomycin
Selman Waksman was a Ukrainian-American biochemist and microbiologist. His research on soil microbes led to the discovery of streptomycin and several other antibiotics. Many soil bacteria, such as those of the genus Streptomyces, produce substances to kill bacterial competitors. We call them antibiotics. Waksman's team discovered and developed several antibiotics, including the important streptomycin and neomycin that have since been used treating infectious diseases. For example, streptomycin was the first antibiotic that could be used against tuberculosis. In addition, he introduced procedures that led to the development of many other types of antibiotics. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "ingenious, systematic and successful studies of the soil microbes that led to the discovery of streptomycin."
Waksman is always credited with coming up with the term antibiotics. Yet the term was already used in 1871 by the French dermatologist François Henri Hallopeau. He used it to describe a substance that is against the development of life.
Controversy
Waksman discovered streptomycin together with Albert Schatz, one of his PhD students, and Elizabeth Bugie, a master's student on his research team. The bacteria that produced the antibiotic were discovered by Schatz and Bugie in the farmland outside the lab. Still, Waksman took all the credit for the discovery. He and his foundation were later sued by Schatz and Bugie. Both cases were settled out of court. This resulted in financial compensation and the right to "legal and scientific credit as co-discoverer of streptomycin."